


Oxygen eaters

by LeWanderinGaal



Series: Series 11 Comment Challenges by BBCDoctorWho (on Wattpad) [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Comments Challenge by BBCDoctorWho in Wattpad Story, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, I really liked this one actually, I thank my organic chem teacher and his wonderful classes for helping my mind create these creatures, Multi, its full of wonderful people and amazing stories, u all should check the DW wattpad books with all the entries and selected stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 16:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16916481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeWanderinGaal/pseuds/LeWanderinGaal
Summary: The main prompt was: "Tell us a story about a creature you encounter that's seriously adorbs but also super dangerous and how you and The Doctor over come it."******Episode 5 Comments Challenge by BBCDoctorWho in Wattpad Entry.





	Oxygen eaters

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't get selected for this one because I submitted my entry too late I think. Time zones suck :(  
> Also, I got a little too science hypothetical with the description of how these bad guys (that are not bad by themselves) function.  
> A 7 comments/parts long entry. 
> 
> The thought starters they gave us were:  
> -What does it looks like?  
> -What makes it deadly?  
> -How do you overcome it?

As soon as we got inside the room we closed the doors, Graham, Ryan and I holding it like that while Yas helped carrying the miscellaneous stuff The Doctor was almost throwing at her.

 

"Doctor you never told us these things were capable of going Power Rangers' monster like!"

 

"Ryan, I'm learning about them as much as you are. I've never seen them in my life!" The Doctor kept picking things up, giving them a quick look and then proceeding to either throw the items to Yas' arms or somewhere else in the floor.

 

"If you think about it, it's the only way those balls could suffocate anyone." Ryan just gave me an annoyed look, one I was to used to it now.

 

"You all're missing the fact that we are in a laboratory? A future and space lab? As far as we know these things could be a creation of the now dead crew." Graham had a point, but we all seemed to have ignored it before because a dead crew wouldn't help in defeating the creatures.

 

"Yes but, I still can't believe those fur balls would want to kill us! They are so..." Yas seemed hesitant to finish her sentence, but I knew what she meant.

 

"Cute? Cuddly-looking?"

 

"Exactly!" Yas almost dropped the things in her arms.

 

"Yeah well, we can't trust every fur ball we see, not even because they look like pomerians." Ryan was never fond of super cute things, and now it was showing.

 

"Son, I dare to say their faces remind me more of a cat." Graham had a point, they were just round shaped...things, and the eyes, snot and ears were quite cat-like.

 

"Besides, you look at them and all you want to do is pick one up and bury your face in them!" Yas was doing gestures with her hands as if grabbing something.

 

"Uuuh, don't do it, I already tried that. It triggered my allergies." I said as a matter of fact, but The Doctor seemed to stop her searching at that.

 

"What do you mean you tried it? When did that happen?" She started walking to where we three were struggling against the doors.

 

"Almost as soon as we arrived? I saw one of them under a chair and picked it up. I didn't know it was alive back then, it just seemed like a big ball of fluffiness. I put it down because the itching and sneezes started." In fact, I still had to sniff constantly among with cleaning my nose, even though I already had used my meds.

 

"Dude, are you serious? We've been to so many places with toxic to the touch beings and thing and you rub your face against the first thing you saw on here?"

 

"Yeah, I know, it was stupid...actually, I'm not completely sure why I picked it up. It's like I was moving in automatic..." we all stayed silent after I answered Ryan's question. I thought the silence was to hear if the things have left, but then The Doctor seemed to have an epiphany, because her eyes went wide and her mouth had opened forming an "o" shape.

 

"What? What is it Doc?" Graham was excited over the fact we might be able to finally leave this place. I was too.

 

"I'm not sure if they are modified beings or what, but I think I know how to defeat them. Or at least make them let us leave." The Doctor returned to Yas and picked what seemed to be a screen then went back to us, motioning the police officer to come.

 

The Doctor switched the place of a couple of wires and then pointed the sonic at it.

 

"Ok, look. We arrived here because The TARDIS got a distraught signal, one of lack of oxygen. But we are breathing. There's plenty of it in the ship." She was sliding her hand across the screen, showing us what seemed to be graphics and bars of different colours.

 

"Wait, Doctor, that room's bar. It's almost empty." At some point Yas had left the items on the floor and was pointing at the oxygen bar of one of the rooms at the other end of the lab.

 

"Isn't that the place we read about on the journal?"

 

"It is Ryan. That must mean it's where the biggest number of these...creatures are. We need a name for them. Would be easier. Any ideas?"

 

Now The Doctor was looking at us with expecting eyes. Why is she trying to name the things in the middle of this?

 

"Doctor, I don't think this is the best moment."

 

"We having a name for them would be easier Yas. Come on, I'm looking for ideas."

 

The four of us shared looks on The Doctor's antics, but I was already trying to come up with something.

 

But we had nothing.

 

"(Y/N), what are you allergic to?" She was looking at her sonic while asking.

 

"Umm, lot of things, but in a nutshell, dust, pollen and grass when it's spring. Why do you...oH!" Why haven't we thought of that?

 

"Exactly, they are surrounded by dust and usually floating particles. They are Dustalls!" The Doctor was grinning from ear to ear.

 

"Did you just-? I'm not gonna ask." I laughed at Ryan's reaction. It wasn't the first time The Doctor had come up with a silly yet accurate name for things we have seen while travelling, but it was still amusing.

 

"Ok but, why the Dustalls had to suffocate the crew? Do they need the oxygen to breath like us?"

 

"No Yas, the crew wasn't just suffocated. Almost every molecule of oxygen available in their bodies was took away. Suctioned out and away from them." The Doctor was scrolling on the screen and furiously typing. "These Dustalls don't need oxygen to breath, but apparently they use the natural need of the particles of being in pairs. Their bodies seem to create electric impulses to disassociate the diatomic oxygen, but then it goes back to bond with another molecule." The Doctor hasn't stopped looking at the screen. "This constant jump and movement of electrons creates a static field that allows the dust and everything else to 'attach' to their beings. But while doing so, they do loose oxygen molecules, little by little, so they have to keep accumulating it. Make sure they are big enough."

 

"And the bigger they are, the easiest is for those things to kill other beings. How wonderful." Graham was still not used to how often and close we got to die in this adventures...but I would have worried if he was in peace with that issue.

 

"Exactly. We don't know what they feed of - and not planning on finding out - but we know why they want us: we are the easiest source of oxygen for them."

 

"Okay. What do you want us to do Doctor?" It was obvious she had a plan, so I just asked for instructions.

 

"(Y/N), I'm going to need you to get out of this room while we four distract the Dustalls. Then-" she picked up some talkies out of the pile of gadgets and threw one at me "-I'm going to need you to tell us when you are done changing the flow configurations on the controls room." She had being sonic-ing the screen after giving me the radio.

 

"How am I supposed to do that? I know I work at a lab, but we have waaaay more basic controls back on earth." Even when it sounded like I was complaining, I was already adjusting the talkie secure inside my jacket.

 

But then she threw the Swiss blade without a knife at me. Which I barely caught.

 

I was looking at it, then at The Doctor, then back at the sonic, not knowing what to say. She never stayed away of it. And she was handing it to me?

 

"It has already the configurations on it. Just start scanning the panel - for it, think 'Scan' - and when it changes the frequency of the sound, get closer to that part of the controls and change the settings."

 

I started looking at her again, opening and closing my mouth like a fish, when Graham's voice interrupted the silence among us.

 

"Go on then. We're trusting you, and we know you can do it."

 

I snapped out of it and hid the claw-looking artefact on my jacket too, nodding for them to know I was gonna do it.

 

...

 

"Amm, Doctor? I don't see any other doors...do you want me to get out by the ventilation tubes?"

 

"Yes. Yes I do. You are the only one who fits."

 

The Doctor was smiling, sure her plan would work. But I heard Ryan snorting and Yas giggling.

 

I grunted and started taking the grids away of the hole entrance.

 

"You all will be thankful of my height later!" I said as I got in.

 

-°-°-

 

"GET INSIDE QUICKLY!"

 

We rushed inside The TARDIS, finally being able of breathing, and as soon as we all were inside, The Doctor closed the doors and started moving levers and pushing buttons to get us out of here.

 

The configuration the sonic had made the lab ship system's to redirect basically all the oxygen to the rooms on the other side of where The TARDIS and us were, making the Dustalls leave, allowing us to run...with just a couple of breaths still lacking of normal oxygen levels.

 

"Are you sure they'll be fine by their own? I mean, I know they tried to kill us, but I still feel bad about them." I said as I walked near The Doctor, being followed by the others.

 

"Yeah, I'm sure. That lab has an automatic route where it lands in a near planet to take the oxygen from water every then and now, so they won't run out of it. It's an inhabited planet don't worry. Well, at least pluricellular beings." She seemed to type something with the buttons and then the screen was displaying a route on a space quadrant map.

 

"But, what about their food? Surely they cannot live just like that."

 

"About that, according to what my sonic got and The TARDIS analysis, their digestive system is full of metals, but their metabolism is very, VERY slow, so I guess they will eat this ship little by little."

 

And just as she said, we were seeing a list of metals and alloys the Dustalls were absorbing.

 

"Jeeez, when we were talking about genetic engineering in class this is not what we meant." I still found a little bizarre how whoever was the project's principal scientist came up with the essentially chimeras we just encountered.

 

"(Y/N), when anyone is given the knowledge, power and opportunity of playing god, they usually don't use it to make a noble contribution to the universe. Sadly the funds come from selfish sources." The Doctor changes the images on the small screen to a kind of projection on the walls. Now, we were watching a quick compendium of headlines from different eras and planets where science has been put under bad use, or bad management.

 

"Do tell. One of my teachers was super close to finding a way of control and stop the eyes of needing more increase on the lenses of their glasses, if the reason they needed them was genetic, but multiple companies forced him to stop it and change work field."

 

"Man that's awful, he could have helped millions of lifes. What's he doing now?"

 

"Well yeah, but 'a cured patient is a customer lost' Ryan."

 

We were silent for a moment, not really looking at the display anymore.

 

"...do you guys think we could go back a little so we can pet them before they caused all this mess?"

 

Let's just say Yas and I now take care of a dog back on earth. A really fluffy one.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always welcomed, and I try to make my entries as inclusive as I can without stepping away from the idea that we writers are the ones with The Doctor, which is the essence of the challenges.
> 
> Read ya around!


End file.
